Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ The Second Chance ❯ Grief ( Chapter 1 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

One

It was only a few months since Chi Chi suddenly passed away. Luckily, the boys were handling it well. I hadn't been alone in years, so this was all so new to me. Bulma was as supportive as she could be. I didn't have to worry about funeral costs or anything like that. She had assured me that it was already taken care of. I'd never been so thankful for my childhood friend.

I had started keeping to myself since the funeral. Everyone had come and extended their sympathies, even Vegeta. I had assumed that he'd be the last person that would show his face at such a human event. Not only did he show up, but he was in a suit, a very uncommon getup for the Saiyan prince. He extended a hand to me as a form of comfort. As I gripped the prince's hand and gave a sturdy shake, I watched a flash of sympathy pass through those onyx eyes. I didn't say anything, but I did nod my appreciation. 

Gohan managed to hold himself together through the entire service, but Videl wasn't as composed. She and my wife were very close. I was surprised to see Pan standing beside her father, her head tilted downward to keep her eyes shaded by her dark hair. I knew she didn't want anyone to see her vulnerable, even with the passing of her grandmother. She’d dealt with loss a lot in her twelve-year life, and it broke my heart to have to be the one to break it to her that her grandmother wouldn’t be able to be wished back. She was human, and died of natural causes.

Even now, nearly six months later, I hadn’t dealt with my loss. Losing a mate wasn’t something that I’d been prepared to deal with so early. I didn’t even know Chi Chi was sick. I didn’t have time to come to terms with having to handle this.

It had been a while since I’d left the house. Sure, I’d train, but that was the extent of my activities for the day. Everyone seemed to keep their distance, knowing that I wasn’t prepared yet to deal with visitors. I’d moved back into Grandpa Gohan’s old house in the mountains, the house I’d grown up in. The house in Mount Paozu wasn’t far from the home that my wife and I had shared, but it was enough distance to keep me sane.

I wasn’t prepared for my phone to ring. Usually, Gohan only called on Wednesdays.

I answered, trying to sound as happy as I would any other time. Bulma’s voice on the other end caught me off guard.

“Goku! I have been trying to get a hold of you for hours. I need you to get to Capsule Corps. as soon as you can.” I couldn’t tell if it was her excitement to hear me, or the urgency of whatever she was trying to get a hold of me for.

“Why? What’s wrong?” It wasn’t that I wasn’t happy to hear from Bulma, but I didn’t understand what was so urgent that Vegeta and Trunks couldn’t handle.

“There’s another extremely strong power level on earth, Goku. It just appeared out of nowhere, and Vegeta can’t even determine what it is. We don’t know if it’s friendly, and we don’t want to be too careful.”

I took a deep breath, trying to put my brain into some kind of gear to defend anything. I’d been so numb lately and I couldn’t tell Bulma that I wouldn’t care if it was a threat or not. “Yeah, I’ll be there.”

“It’s stronger than you, Goku.” I could hear her voice tremble. This power level was so abrupt and I knew that bothered Bulma. I couldn’t understand why I’d never sensed this power level in the last few hours. Perhaps, I was just too cut off from the outside world to sense any abnormal ki.

“Don’t worry, Bulma. Everything will be fine.” I hung up the phone and tried to hone in on Vegeta’s energy. Usually, I’d have no issue. He was one of the strongest forces on the planet, but I couldn’t seem to get a clear location. I found an approximate location, so I pressed my index and middle finger to my forehead and focused on that energy.

I dropped into the lawn of Capsule Corps. I looked around, sensing a lot of other energies in the area. They must have told everyone about this power level. I made my way around the campus, trying to find the group.

I eventually found them in the courtyard around the back of the campus. There was a fountain in the center of a concrete circle. The circle was surrounded by wooden picnic tables where most of the Son and Briefs families were seated. I immediately saw Gohan and Goten seated with Trunks and Bra. I knew that Gohan would never bring Pan to something this dangerous. Vegeta was seated across the table from Bulma. Everyone, besides the blue-haired woman, were clad in our combat gis, and Vegeta was in his Saiyan combat armor.

Everyone looked extremely serious.

“It’s approaching quickly, Kakarot.” Vegeta muttered as he stood. Everyone was watching me.

“Do I have something on my face?” I asked, wiping my hands down my face, trying to figure out why their eyes were glued to me.

Gohan stood up and crossed his arms. “It’s just the first time that anyone has seen you since Mom’s funeral.”

That’s what it was. No one had expected me to isolate myself so I could grieve properly. They were expecting my usual demeanor to remain.

“Oh.” I chuckled, making sure to flash a typical toothy smile and scratch the back of my hand. “I’ve been training.”

I could tell that not a single person there believed that. However, that didn’t really matter right now. I could suddenly sense the power level that everyone was so worried about. It felt almost like Vegeta, but much stronger. It was a Saiyan. I was taken aback by the sheer power of this Saiyan. How hadn’t I noticed it before?

“That’s incredible.” I said, looking in the direction of the power. A sudden jolt of adrenaline burned in my veins. I clenched and unclenched my fists in anticipation. I hadn’t been this excited about a fight in a long time. I loved a challenge.

Gohan smiled over at me. “It’s nice to see you so excited again, Dad.” He smiled over at me, almost mirroring my own smirk.

The power level closed in quickly. I looked up to see a golden aura soaring across the sky, leaving a trail like a jet. My heart accelerated and I could feel the ki of all the Saiyans around me elevate in preparation. It was another Super Saiyan. Every time we thought all of the Saiyans were found, we stumbled across another one.

The Saiyan slowed and started to lower toward the ground. I could feel Vegeta’s power level rise steadily while the Saiyan lowered and dropped out of Super Saiyan form.

I heard Vegeta’s laugh as he noticed that it was a woman.

“We were all blubbering over a woman?” His cackle seemed to echo in the small group of Saiyans.

“Vegeta.” I warned him, never looking away from the woman. She appeared to be young, and stood as tall as Vegeta. Her black hair was tied into a braid over her right shoulder. It stuck up in small jags around her face, like bangs, but frozen upward. She was small, and her arms were crossed over her chest. She wore the same Saiyan armor as Vegeta, and even had almost the same eyes as him. They were dark and emotionless. I could see the lines of lean muscle that covered her body, and the brown tail that was wrapped around her waist like a belt.

I’d never seen a pure-blooded Saiyan woman, but I could tell that we could not underestimate her power.

“You can’t possibly be scared of a woman, Kakarot!” Vegeta chuckled in disbelief, walking towards the unfamiliar Saiyan. The woman didn’t move, and watched as the prince approached her. “She’s nothing but a child!”

“Don’t underestimate her, Vegeta!” I shouted at him urgently.

Vegeta arched an eyebrow and leaned forward toward the mysterious woman. “She doesn’t seem too threatening to me.” He smirked at the woman. “You must know who I am, girl.”

She mirrored Vegeta’s smirk, closing her eyes momentarily while she chuckled. When those cold eyes opened to look at Vegeta again, a shiver shot down my spine. “I do. You’re Vegeta, the prince of all Saiyans, former subject to Frieza.”

I was shocked. She knew Vegeta, but there was no way this woman was old enough to have been on Planet Vegeta before it was destroyed.

“Surely, you know that I surpass you, Prince.”

Everyone was a little shocked at the Saiyan’s statement. We all knew it was true, but she seemed very sure that the prince wouldn’t go after her.

Vegeta chuckled. “How can you be sure of that, child?”

“We’ve fought before. You’ve lost.”

I tried to concentrate on keeping my guard up. It was a lot of effort since I was also trying to figure out who this person was.

“Relax, Kakarot.” The woman’s voice danced around the group. I looked over to her. How did she know me?

“How…?” I paused.

She looked over at me, her eyes boring into me. “I’m not here to hurt anyone.”

“Who are you?” I found myself asking the question before I thought through it.

She smirked again. I couldn’t believe how much like Vegeta she was. “It’s about time someone actually asked.”

She walked past Vegeta, into the courtyard. Bulma tensed, hoping she made well of her supposed good intentions. The woman sat down where Vegeta had been moments before. Looking around, she motioned for us to follow.
I swallowed and sat at the table with the Saiyan and Bulma. Vegeta stayed standing, an annoyed look across his face.

She shrugged. “My name is Ellery. I’m the daughter of Prince Vegeta.”

I was confused. Who had Vegeta had a child with before Bulma? Why hadn’t he told us?

“I have no daughter by that name, child! What are you trying to pull?” Vegeta’s anger was practically tangible. I’d never tell him, but it annoyed me that he couldn’t even let Ellery explain what was going on and why she was here.

Trunks looked the most confused out of everyone. Being a little younger than twenty himself, Ellery would have been conceived just months before Trunks was conceived. Vegeta had been on earth for that entire span before the androids had originally came. Training had been his priority, so there was no way that he could have had a child with anyone else, especially another Saiyan.

Ellery snapped her gaze over to her father. I could already see all the similarities between the two. “I’d suggest you allowing me to finish.” The words were cold, obviously done with dealing with interruptions.

Vegeta clenched his teeth and crossed his arms over his chest again and averted his gaze from the girl claiming to be his daughter.

Ellery turned back to the rest of the Saiyans. “As I was saying, I am Vegeta’s daughter. I was not a creation of natural means. I was created by Frieza. After he found out that he would die at the hands of a Super Saiyan, he decided to create just that to defend himself. One of his men came back to my timeline and told him that Kakarot would be his killer. The only Saiyan he still had access to was Vegeta, and collecting his DNA wasn’t hard.” Ellery looked over at me. “I didn’t have to only surpass Vegeta, but I had to be stronger than you.”

I was interested. I knew that the multiverse theory was proven by this point, but I hadn’t realized how different all the timelines could be. There was literally a timeline that I didn’t kill Frieza.

“His men worked hard to figure out how to create a warrior from just a bit of DNA. Honestly, I’m less of a daughter to the prince than I am a female clone of him. I have very little of the female who was the donor for the rest of my DNA that Vegeta couldn’t provide. All that was needed from the female was the casing to replicate an egg so I could form from the synthetic sperm that one of the scientists created.”

Bulma was sitting forward across the table, obviously intrigued by the scientific breakthrough that Ellery spoke of.

“After the embryo was viable, it was placed into a mechanical womb, an incubator of sorts. From that, I was born. From that day, I was trained to be the best. If I didn’t succeed, I was punished brutally until failure was no longer an option. I had no choice but to win every match that I ever fought in. By the time I was four years old, I had reached Super Saiyan form, and I was seven by the time I ascended to the second stage of Super Saiyan.” Ellery was no longer looking at anyone in particular, but just looking out into space as she spoke.

“Vegeta and Nappa were defeated on earth, and Frieza told me that I had to destroy the Saiyan who was threatening to end our race. I never knew what I was really fighting for. He never disclosed that information. I was just to beat whoever threatened the crew, and I did. Frieza still met Kakarot and his friends on Namek, but things happened very differently. There was no battle. Once the ship landed that held them, I destroyed it, and waited for Kakarot to come to the rescue, not realizing that they were already dead.”

Gohan looked over at me, realizing that in that timeline, he was dead before he had reached six years old. Krillin and Bulma would have been gone as well. Obviously, I would have come as soon as I recovered from my battle with Vegeta if I thought they were in trouble.

“Vegeta had come to find the dragon balls, and once he had gathered them, I killed him as well. Frieza had everyone right where he wanted them, but Kakarot showed up a bit earlier than expected, so I was forced to duel with him momentarily before I killed him.”

My heart pounded in my chest. Frieza had constructed a warrior that had the capability of killing all of us easily, and he had no problem releasing this creature on all of us, including my young son. I must have been killed very easily if she didn’t even consider it a battle.

“Frieza decided to try to wish for immortality, but, as you all know, the Namekian dragon balls can’t be used unless you can speak the native language of the Namekian people. Frieza sent me to try to find someone who could make the wish for us. I found someone easily, but as I returned, I overheard a conversation that Frieza was having with Zarbon.” She paused, forcing herself to swallow. “Since I’d defeated Kakarot, they were going to kill me. They no longer had a use for me.”

A shock of sympathy passed through me. She’d completely trusted this creature that had raised her and made her strong, but he was always planning to betray her. It couldn’t have been easy to hear.

“During their conversation was when I found out who my father was. Zarbon had said that I was too much like my father to go down easily, so Frieza told him he’d use ‘the bands.’ They’d oftentimes used those special cuffs when I was being disciplined. The cuffs blocked the flow of ki, so I wouldn’t be able to transform, and I would be no stronger than Zarbon. I wouldn’t stand a chance against him and Dedoria.”

I looked over to see that Vegeta was actually listening intently. I could almost see understanding in his stern features. Never once had Vegeta expected to have someone with an experience so much like his own.

“I had no choice. I had to destroy them before they could destroy me. I was twenty years old by that point. Frieza really hadn’t been paying attention, so I had to get out quickly. I started to attack the ship, and Zarbon came after me. I was struggling, but I eventually got up the strength to transform and take out Zarbon. Frieza wasn’t very forgiving about that. He came after me in his fourth form, so I had to evade him as much as possible. He didn’t play far, and if he could cut my power, he would. That was the day that I transformed into the third stage of Super Saiyan. After that, Frieza was no longer a match for me at all. I took him out with one attack.”

Even Bra was drawn into this story now. It was hard to believe that anyone could reach that kind of power level at such a young age. I could tell that Ellery could easily reach Super Saiyan three now. She was stronger than I was.

“I stayed on Namek and trained for a few years before I worked with a few of the natives and the wreckage of Frieza’s ship to build a machine. Originally, I just wanted to go to Planet Vegeta, but I found out I couldn’t do that since it was already destroyed. It took some trial and error, but I made it to this timeline because it is a great time of peace and I thought this would be a great time to get to know my heritage and possibly restart my race.”

Vegeta looked surprised. “How do you expect to restart the Saiyan race? There are only two living Saiyan males that will produce purebred offspring and one of them is your own father. You can’t restarted a race with one father and one mother.” I could tell that he was suddenly much more interested in the idea of having a daughter now that he thought she had a plan to rebuild a kingdom that was obliterated.

Ellery looked over at her father. “I understand that the only available male is Kakarot, but I’ve been doing some research and I believe with the technological advancements that this planet has to offer, I can create a serum to change our nearest relatives into Saiyans.”

I nodded. “By our nearest relatives, you mean humans?”

Ellery smiled. “You’re smarter in this timeline than you were in the other.”

I tried not to take offense to the comment. I knew that I lacked common sense sometimes, but I knew how to put two and two together.

“I could help!” Bulma shouted, obviously a little too excited about the project. “I’d love to figure this out.”

Ellery looked over at Vegeta, sniffing the air for a moment. “She’s your mate?”

Vegeta raised his eyebrow. “What of it?”

Ellery shrugged. “I never expected my father to be ragging a lesser species.” She looked between Trunks and Bra. “They are your cubs?”

Vegeta grit his teeth and watched the girl, who was standing and walking toward Bra, the weakest of the group of Saiyans. She leaned over and sniffed Bra’s neck, who stiffened and started to shake. It had to be intimidating for the teenager to be so close to someone of such enormous power. Ellery stood, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

“To think you’d settle for creating mutts.” Ellery shook her head. I felt Vegeta’s ki spike suddenly as he powered up quickly and flew toward Ellery. She smiled and grabbed his fist. Vegeta was already in his Super Saiyan form, but Ellery hadn’t even raised her ki to defend herself. She didn’t have to.

Vegeta continued to attack her, though it was futile. She seemed to bore with the battle quickly, so she broke her knee up to Vegeta’s stomach, making him pause in pain. Her elbow came down on the back of his neck as he cowered to his knees. Vegeta crumpled to a limp pile of flesh on the ground, returning to his base form. Ellery smiled.

I was shocked. She barely had to lift a finger to defeat the second strongest being on earth. Gohan looked at me, asking if he should intervene. I shook my head slowly. I stood up, walking over to Ellery. I tried not to show her that I was nervous that her power surpassed mine so greatly. I picked up Vegeta and tossed his body over my shoulder.

“You’re welcome to stay, but we’re in a time of peace for a reason. I have to ask you not to break that, or we’ll have to ask you to leave.” I told her sternly, walking over to lay her father underneath of a shaded tree.

Ellery watched as I left Bulma to attend to her unconscious husband. I walked past her. My sons stood up and quickly followed. Bra and Trunks had stayed to be with Bulma. Ellery stayed where she was, watching me intently.

I closed the door to the building and faced my back toward it as I looked to my sons. Gohan looked more nervous than Goten, but I could feel the angst coming off of my younger son. “All we can do is welcome her here. She’s aggressive, but I believe she’s peaceful.”

Gohan swallowed. “But, how can we stop her if she gets out of control?”

I shrugged. “I’ll have to train. I don’t think I’ll become stronger than her, but I can do my best.”

“What about that whole ‘continuing the race’ thing? You aren’t actually considering that, are you?” Goten asked, his patience waning already.

I didn’t look my sons in the eyes. “I don’t even know how long she’ll be here. I won’t be creating any children for a long time.”

Gohan looked relieved, but also puzzled. “Do you believe all of that? Frieza was never as strong as a Super Saiyan when we fought him. How could he have been that strong when he was fighting her? He couldn’t have held her off at Super Saiyan two.”

My son was right. Frieza was much weaker than Ellery’s version when I’d fought him. “If he raised a Saiyan specifically to destroy me, he would have had to train in order to teach her similar strength. She would surpass him, but he would still be much stronger than he had been without having to train at all.”

“So, you’re saying she told the truth?” Goten’s voice was strained. It had always been that way when he was worried.

I nodded. “As far as I can tell, she didn’t lie to us.”

Bulma had helped a stumbling Vegeta inside, and Ellery was following behind.

“You can stay in one of our guest rooms, Ellery.” Bulma said, depositing the price on the couch and showing his daughter to the room she’d be staying. Bulma took this much better than I would have expected.

I stayed where I was for a moment, trying to devise a back-up plan. I wanted to believe that Ellery meant us no harm, but I couldn’t be sure, and I wanted to make sure my family was protected. I must have let my guard down, because when the princess came close to me, I hadn’t noticed.

“Kakarot.” Her voice wasn’t extremely high, actually rather low for a woman, and she kept it extremely even. She couldn’t let on to any emotion she was feeling.

I looked over at the small woman. She and I held the gaze for a while.

“Being the only male suited to father the children, I will need you to make sure you keep yourself around long enough for that.” Ellery was blunt. She wanted to make sure I was alive long enough to sire her children so she could try to restart this race that I had only known about for half of my life.

“My wife just passed away, Ellery. I will not be fathering any children for a good while.” I tried not to think too hard about Chi Chi, and what a horrible husband I’d been. Though she was a stickler to the boys, she had always been understanding. She was overprotective, but she loved the boys no matter what. She loved me no matter what. No matter how long I left her alone, she always welcomed me home with open arms.

She arched a brow. I wouldn’t deny it. She did resemble Vegeta, but she was still very feminine, and very attractive. Her face shared the angles of Vegeta’s bone structure, but the widows peak she had wasn’t nearly as defined as Vegeta’s.

“A human mate, I presume?”

My gaze snapped down to her’s. “Human or not, she was my wife.” I pushed away from the wall that I’d been leaning against, standing straight. “She was the mother of my children and she was the best companion I could have asked for.”

Ellery’s eyes narrowed at my defensive outburst. She didn’t speak again, which was probably wise, considering how my temper was growing short. I turned and walked away from her. I couldn’t believe the nerve of her. I thought Vegeta was an asshole at times, it seemed that his daughter was even worse.